The present invention relates generally to tools for maintenance and repair of firearms, and more particularly to an improved tool for the inspection, cleaning and maintenance of a receiver assembly, breech, barrel and bore, including the upper and lower receiver components thereof, of a semiautomatic or automatic firearm or rifle.
Certain automatic and semiautomatic firearms such as the AR-15 rifle have removable and/or replaceable components, enabling repair, replacement and substitution with new or replacement parts, the receiver assembly being composed of additional subassemblies and parts that require inspection and cleaning to ensure proper maintenance and operation of the weapon, and thus needing to be disassembled and reassembled repeatedly. The disassembly and reassembly operations involve the removal of set pins, levers, springs and other components, many of which are small and easily lost, some of which are also susceptible to damage during this process owing to the force necessary to displace or insert friction fitting components associated with the receiver body of a weapon. For example, the AR-15 rifle has a receiver assembly composed of an upper receiver assembly and a lower receiver assembly connected by means of a pivot pin and a takedown pin that pass through interlocking pivot pin and takedown pin assembly blocks, respectively, located in the respective upper and lower receiver assemblies. In a typical disassembly procedure, the AR-15 rifle (and other similar weapons) is placed on one side on a flat surface and a pivot pin removal tool, such as a round pin punch is position against the pivot or takedown pin and struck with a hammer to displace and then further to dislodge the pin from the receiver assembly, which can be disassembled after both pins have been removed.
In servicing a rifle without full disassembly of the upper and lower receivers, one typically either displaces to its ball detent or fully removes only the takedown pin, so that the upper and lower receiver assemblies can be angular displaced by pivoting about the pivot pin which remains in place, allowing access to the corresponding inner surfaces of the breech, barrel and bore of the upper receiver assembly and the internal components of the lower receiver assembly. However, holding the upper and lower receiver assemblies in a fixed and stable position remains problematic as blocks and wedges typically employed can easily be displaced or jogged out of position enabling movement of the receivers, potentially damaging portions of the weapon or pinching a user's fingers or hand in the process.
Accordingly, for servicing a rifle, it would be highly desirable to have a tool that would enable easy access to the breech, barrel and bore of the rifle for inspection, cleaning and servicing, inspection and servicing of the upper and lower receiver assemblies thereof, and wherein the tool would hold the upper and lower receivers of the rifle in an open and angularly oriented position with respect to one another so as to provide such ease of access while stabilizing the receivers in a fixed, stable position.